El Paso Judge Bonnie Rangel’s Unruly Courtroom Behavior Penalized

A state panel has sanctioned El Paso District Judge Bonnie Rangel over complaints about her courtroom behavior in 2020 and 2021.

In its order, the panel said that judges “shouldn’t act like TV judges”.

The complaints come from the time period during the Covid pandemic when hearings were being done over Zoom. Before the pandemic, most court proceedings were not videotaped. But there is a video of what the panel admonished Rangel about.

The video (below) shows the judge yelling at attorneys and other court personnel. One video shows Rangel angrily telling an interpreter, “You pissed me off.”

The panel of three Texas judges ruled that the behavior was a misuse of judicial power and recommended additional training for Judge Rangel. Rangel has been on the 171^st District bench since 1999.  None of the judges were from El Paso.

The panel was presided over by Chief Justice Brian Quinn of Amarillo. The other judges were Justice Gina Benavides of South Texas and Chief Justice Scott Golem of Beaumont.

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Even though the order mentions “TV judges” and how real judges shouldn’t present as they do, no mention is made of the “sizzle reel” that Judge Rangel put on IMDB in 2015. In that video (which I’ll also include), Rangel “performs” a “court proceeding” that has all the earmarks of being performed by actors.

The video shows a purported 13-year-old girl who is suing her parents to let her go on birth control.

The video shows Judge Rangel consulting with the “parents” and telling them they need to show their 13-year-old “video of a vagina that’s being stretched to the size of a watermelon” and “we can show her images of a penis oozing with puss”.

Judge Rangel acknowledged the video saying, “It basically was just a retirement idea.”  Some of her critics say Bonnie is STILL trying to be the next Judge Judy.

The video has since been removed from IMDB.